Nomad Priests
|upkeep_cost = |num_figures = |moves = |melee = |ranged = |defense = |resist = |hits = |abilities = Ranged Attack x4 Healer Purify Healing Spell x1 }} Nomad Priests are a type of Normal Unit. This unit may be created from a Nomad town, for the Construction Cost of . The town must already contain a Parthenon for this to be possible. Nomad Priests provide a somewhat-powerful as well as a slightly-weaker Melee Attack - though the unit is normally too fragile to participate in direct combat. More importantly, Priests attached to an army can quickly heal damage units after any battle, and can also cast the Healing spell during battle to heal friendly units. They also have the innate ability to Purify Corrupted tiles. Nomad Priests are also somewhat resistant to Curses and other maledictions. Nomad Priests require an Upkeep Cost of and to maintain. Failure to pay these costs will result in the unit being disbanded automatically. Unit Properties Physical Description Nomad Priests are a group of men (humans), wearing long, pale-green robes and hoods. They carry staves capped with yellow gemstones, which are used to channel magical energy into useful applications. Nomad Priests can also use their staves for hand-to-hand combat, and are not too bad at it either. Nomad Priests are a , containing when fully healed. Attack Properties Nomad Priests possess a fairly-strong Ranged Attack and a good Melee Attack. Unfortunately, because the unit contains only , neither attack is overly useful. Nomad Priests may use their Ranged Attack up to 4 times in each battle before being forced to switch to Melee combat. Each Priest's Ranged Attack has a strength of , causing Magical Damage. With no additional bonuses, each Shaman delivers an average of about per attack. This is a reasonable amount, and will usually cause damage to lightly-armored opponents. The magical nature of this attack means that Magic-Immune targets can completely ignore it. On the other hand, this type of Ranged Attack does not suffer any penalties for distance, and thus will inflict the same average amount of damage at both close range and long range. The unit's Melee Attack is slightly weaker than its Ranged Attack, but still has a strength comparable to that of Swordsmen - at . It is not magical by default, however. This Melee Attack will inflict an average of per Priest - again just enough to get through basic enemy armor. Note that with both its Melee Attack and Ranged Attack, the Nomad Priests unit contains only , which means that all told, these attacks are roughly equal to those of a Swordsmen unit. Still, a Ranged Attack with this strength is still dangerous to enemy low-tier Normal Units. Defense Properties Nomad Priests possess a Defense score of - making them very well-armored compared to other Normal Units. The unit will block about from any damage source, on average. This won't save the Priests from being killed though, because as with most Normal Units, each Nomad Priest possesses only . In other words, each point of inflicted on this unit will kill off one of its . As a result, Priests are not really built to engage in any serious combat. They can provide support fire, but won't stand up to most enemy units or any serious source of damage. Nomad Priests do have some advantage over other Nomad Normal Units in their relatively-high Resistance score of . This gives them a relatively chance of averting enemy Curses, and surviving some spell effects and enemy Special Attacks - though not nearly enough to make them truly immune to such effects. Still, by the time it gains some Experience, the Nomad Priests unit can easily become immune to several kinds of Curses. Other Properties Nomad Priests move at a slow , and can only traverse land tiles. The unit has no special movement properties. Aside from providing some Ranged Attack support during battles, the Nomad Priests' primary purpose is to provide healing to other units. On the overland map, all units stacked with the Priests regains a large number of each turn. This is on top of any natural healing the unit would receive without the presence of the Priests. The amount regained equals about 20% of the total number of this unit would have when fully healthy (and with all alive). For example, a unit of Horsebowmen has per figure, with a maximum of . Its total Hit Points when fully healthy is therefore . When stacked with Priests, this unit will regain an extra 20% * = each overland turn - on top of the it regains naturally with or without their presence. In other words, any damaged unit stacked with the Priests will be restored to full health within no more than 4 turns - and even faster if the stack is inside a town. Without Priests present, a unit on the brink of death could take upwards of 10 or turns to fully heal. The effect is not cumulative. Two units of Priests in the same stack heal other units at the same rate as one unit of Priests. Note that Undead units and creatures from the realm do not heal, whether naturally or with the help of Priests. Purification : Aside from their use in combat and healing, Nomad Priests provide a basic but reliable method of clearing away Corruption from the lands surrounding your towns. This is important when playing against any wizard proficient in magic, as they tend to cast all sorts of spells that cause Corruption. To clear away Corruption, the Priests unit must first move into the tile it wishes to cleanse. Then, issue the order to "Purify", in the unit's command menu. A single unit of Priests will take about 5 turns to Purify any tile, regardless of its terrain. The process can be sped up by sending several units of Priests to the same tile, and ordering them all to Purify simultaneously. The fastest purification speed possible is 2 turns per tile, and is achieved with only 4 Priests working simultaneously. Additional Priests contribute nothing to the effort. Once a tile has been cleared of Corruption, it resumes bestowing any nearby town with the same bonuses it had before being Corrupted. Healing Spell Once per battle, the Nomad Priests can cast a single Healing spell at a targeted friendly unit. They do not use up any of your , nor their own mana/ammunition, to cast this spell. This spell instantly restores to the targeted unit - or however many it takes to restore it to full health (whichever is lower). If the target unit is missing any , these might be brought back to life as a result of the Healing spell. Note that while you may target an already fully-healthy unit with this spell, the spell will simply do nothing. Also note that both the Undead and any other creature from the will never be affected by a Healing spell, regardless of whether or not they are damaged at the time. Basic Strategy Nomad Priests are more useful during battle than their lower-level counterparts, the Shamans, but they are still not a dedicated combat unit. Their role is to provide support for other units. More often, Priests are recruited for their ability to quickly heal up an army, and their ability to Purify Corrupted tiles. This encourages most empires to have at least one such unit, or several to attach to its various armies. During battle, Priests provide some good long-range attack capabilities. They can severely damage an enemy Ranged Attack unit or advancing low-tier Melee Attack unit, but after 4 attacks they will run out of ammunition. Do not be tempted to use the Nomad Priests' Melee Attack - they may inflict some damage, but are very likely to be killed by the enemy at the same time. Keep the Priests back, and when necessary cast the Healing spell to prolong the survival of one of your other units. The Priests' post-battle healing abilities will come in handy to any advancing army. It is sometimes a good idea to have the Priests trailing behind the army, so that they do not need to expose themselves during battle. If units in the main army are seriously hurt in battle, the Priests unit will move into their tile after the battle to start the faster healing process. Within a few turns, the entire army should be healed up and can continue moving towards its objective, again with the Priests trailing behind. Naturally, any appearance of Corruption close to your towns may cause an immediate need to create and use some Priests for purification. If you can afford it, consider creating a dedicated army stack of 4 units of Priests, so that together they can move about and swiftly clear away any Corruption occurring within your empire. This is particularly useful when an enemy wizard casts Great Wasting, which would mean a lot of cleaning to be done. Note that Priests are significantly more expensive than Shamans, so if you have access to both you may wish to use Shamans instead, for this logistical purpose. Once the threat of Corruption is removed, idle Priests can simply be sent to accompany advancing armies, as explained above. Ability Overview Ranged Attack x4 * This unit may use a instead of a Melee Attack up to 4 times in each battle. Once the unit's ammo is expended, it must resort to Melee Attacks. Healer * Damaged allies stacked with this unit will regain an extra number of each turn (on the overland map). * This applies only to units that have natural healing at all. Undead and units from the realm do not heal. * The amount of extra health regained each turn equals 20% of the total amount of the damaged unit would have with all its alive. Purify * This unit can Purify Corrupted tiles. * To use this ability, travel to the Corrupted tile and select the "Purify" command. * A single unit purifies a tile in 5 turns. Each additional unit simultaneously performing Purification in the same tile accelerates the process. * The maximum rate - 2 turns to purify a tile - is achieved with 4 units working simultaneously. There is no benefit to adding more units. Healing Spell x1 * This unit may cast the Healing spell once per combat at any friendly target. * This spell-casting does not take out of the Wizard's pool, nor does it reduce the Wizard's Spell Skill for this battle. * Immediately after casting the spell, the unit's turn ends. It may not move or attack until its next turn. Experience Table The following table illustrates how Nomad Priests improve as they gain Experience. Any properties that are not listed here do not improve with Experience in any way. * To achieve this level, either the Warlord Retort or the Crusade spell must be in play. ** To achieve this level, both the Warlord Retort and the Crusade spell must be in play simultaneously. Average Damage Output The table below details the average amount of damage that each in a Nomad Priests unit will deliver with each type of attack, based on . It can be used in comparison to the target's Defense rating to figure out the chance of hurting that target. Acquisition Nomad Priests may be produced in any Nomad Town. A town must contain a Parthenon to be able to produce Nomad Priests. Should a town lose its Parthenon, it can no longer produce Nomad Priests until a replacement structure is built. The Construction Cost of this unit is . Nomad Priests may appear for hire as Mercenaries. They may already have some Experience on being hired, and several units may be hired simultaneously. Hiring these units requires a certain cost in that depends on many different factors. Nomad Priest Mercenaries have the same Upkeep Cost as a normally-constructed unit. Category:Units Category:Normal Units Category:Nomads Category:Priests